COLUMBIA — Woody Windham, a beloved radio host who spent decades as a disc jockey synonymous with laid-back tunes and shag dancing, has died. He was 83.Â
"He is a man that will be remembered as the voice of some people’s childhoods. The man who came to eat with your child at school one day just because they called in and asked him to," his family said in a Facebook post announcing his death.
The longtime radio host, known as "Woody with the goodies," spent more than half a century as a radio host in Columbia, where his voice shaped a generation of listeners. He also played a major part in the early careers of young radio hosts in the area.Â
"Woody was the sound of Columbia for teenagers growing up in the '60s and '70s," Dave Aiken, a longtime WOLO TV station manager and retired disc jockey, told Free Times.Â
His daughter, Jennifer, shared a story of his impact on a then-first grader who listened to Windham's morning radio show, which he hosted alongside his brother, Leo, in the mid-1970s. He organized a letter campaign for a young girl who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and when he later announced she had died, Windham shared the news with listeners.Â
"The little girl was buried at Woodlawn on Leesburg, not too far from where I lived as a child. I wish I could recall her name. But I can recall her story because of your dad’s gentleness and grace," Jennifer Windham shared in a Facebook post.Â
After decades in radio, Windham, alongside his daughters, opened a dance club known as The Woody in 2011 in the Vista. The family shut down that location in the summer of 2019 and later relocated to Main Street. Windham's daughters still run the dance bar, which is popular not only for its dance floor, but also its drag brunches.Â
Woody Windham at WCOS station in 1970.Â
Despite his impact on Columbia's dance scene, Windham was most well known for his radio shows and his dedication to the craft.Â
"He had a sense of music," Rick Wrigley, longtime radio host and former colleague of Windham, said. "Woody would start a record, and if it didn't grab him in the first 45 seconds, he would toss it."Â
Wrigley said Windham knew how to pick out hits long before other stations.
Windham was born in a rural, unincorporated area of Darlington County called Windhams Crossroads. He was one of five children, four boys and a girl, of Sarah and Woodrow "Woody" Windham, according to his mother's obituary. His father spent nearly three decades in the Navy.Â
His mother fought three different types of cancer throughout her lifetime, according to her obituary, and Windham spent much of his time as a radio host and a bar owner raising money for various charities, including the American Cancer Society and Harvest Hope Food Bank.Â
Windham got his start in the radio business working at WDAR in Darlington before his first hosting gig on "Top Sixty in Dixie" at WCOS in Columbia.Â
He had a natural talent for broadcasting, friends and former colleagues said, with the ability to pick out big hits ahead of others and an upbeat personality for broadcasting.
"He was fast ... he could run the darn controls faster than anybody I'd ever seen, and he could talk faster than anybody," Rick Amme, who worked at WOSC with Windham, said. Amme was a green college student looking to get into the broadcasting industry when Windham took a chance on him.Â
Windham shaped the careers of many young disc jockeys, some of whom still broadcast, and was dedicated to sharing music with listeners even after he officially left the radio industry.Â
His online radio show, iWoody Radio, is still playing tunes from his personal collection.Â
"The idea was to keep the music alive," Aiken said.
